TO CLIPS INDEX Clips for February 26, 2009

E. J. Montini: Forget textbooks, send in flag police
The Arizona Republic 2/26/09
I understand that some folks plan to rally in support
of public education today at the state Capitol.
Excellent. Alert the authorities. It would be a perfect
time to send in the "flag police." As you know, law-
makers slashed the state's education funding
recently. I'm wondering now whether it was because
they did not want so many millions of taxpayer dollars
going to - there is no polite way to put this - criminals.
Verified reports have come to the newspaper from
inside classrooms located (among other places) on
the campuses of our state's largest universities that
indicate some ongoing and blatant violations of the
law. Apparently, there are classrooms in Arizona
(I've personally seen a few) that do not yet have on
display a proper U.S. flag or a copy of the Constitution
and Bill of Rights.

Robert Robb: With politics, everyone wants the
glory
The Arizona Republic 2/26/09
ASU caved to westside pressure and restored post-
graduate programs, rather than dedicating the West
campus to undergraduate education. That's the
problem with institution-based funding driven by
politics. Everyone wants the glory of research grants
and post-graduate programs. Meanwhile, the state
does a lousy job of undergraduate education.

Cuts to medical programs bad for state, doctors
say
Cronkite News Service/The Arizona Republic
2/26/09
The state's doctor shortage could get worse if the
Legislature makes further cuts to a program that
helps physicians train at Arizona hospitals,
members of the medical community told law-
makers Wednesday. "Residency programs are the
single best way to grow your physician population,"
said David Landrith, vice president of policy and
political affairs with the Arizona Medical Association.
"Nothing else works as well." Landrith and others
addressed the Senate Healthcare and Medical
Liability Reform Committee about graduate medical
education programs, which take doctors fresh from
medical schools and give them on-the-job training
with internships and residencies around the state.

Arizona lagging in tech presence, education
The Arizona Republic 2/26/09
Arizona's technology industry began shedding jobs
before the recession started and is not keeping
pace with comparable states on measures such
as venture capital growth and inventions. Arizona
also lags behind eight peer states on funding for
university research and the share of students
securing science, technology, math and engineering
degrees, according to a new report. Ohio-based
Battelle completed the report on behalf of Science
Foundation Arizona to assess Arizona's progress in
growing technology jobs and education. The
foundation plans to use the report to track its
mission of spurring technology and innovation
statewide, and measure the state's overall effort to
diversify the economy with high-paying technology
jobs

Three more NAU building projects OK'd
Arizona Daily Sun 2/26/09
The Legislature's Joint Committee on Capital
Review has given Northern Arizona University
the go-ahead to proceed with three additional
building projects using so-called 'SPEED'
money. The projects would be funded 80 per-
cent by Arizona Lottery funds and 20 percent
by NAU. The projects are part of the Stimulus
Plan for Economic and Educational
Development, or SPEED, and were approved
by the Legislature and governor in June.
SPEED is designed to provide funding for
deferred maintenance projects, say university
officials. Members on Tuesday approved
renovations for the Hotel and Restaurant
Management building, the Liberal Arts
building and the Skydome. However, a time-
line on the latest construction is undetermined
because of the university's current budget
situation.

CCC keeps tuition rate same for fall 2009
Arizona Daily Sun 2/26/09
Tuition rates at Coconino Community College
for the fall 2009 school year will stay the same.
Despite the college's dwindling operational
budget, the CCC District Governing Board
voted recently to keep tuition the same as it
has been since fall 2008. Board members
also voted to reduce the senior citizen discount
rate to 10 percent and approved a tuition plateau
at 15 credit hours, meaning any student taking
18 credit hours would receive three credit hours
for free. Unofficial enrollment figures at CCC
continue to break records. CCC Vice President
of Student Affairs David Minger reported that
community college's full-time equivalent count
is up 18.4 percent from last year and head-
count is up 23.5 percent. In other CCC news,
the college announced that it has re-funded its
1999 bond with a lower interest rate, which is
expected to save county taxpayers more than
$1.1 million over the next 10 years.

Study points out flaws in European test for
students
Associated Press/Arizona Daily Sun
2/26/09
WASHINGTON -- The nation's governors and other
policy makers have advocated a deeply flawed
European test to judge American students, a
private study found. The National Governors
Association and other groups have been pushing
states to compare their kids' performance to that of
students around the world. The idea is to help the
U.S. gain on better-performing countries by
borrowing their best ideas. To compare American
schoolchildren, the governors have relied in part
on the Programme for International Student
Assessment, or PISA, which is given to high school
students in 30 countries. But the Brookings
Institution, in a report released Tuesday, said the
PISA test is too flawed. The PISA test goes beyond
learning to measure values and beliefs, the report
found. For example, PISA asks students whether
they favor laws that protect the habitats of
endangered species. And it asks if children favor
electricity from renewable sources and regulating
factory emissions. "These are political judgments,"
said Tom Loveless, the study's author. "For me as
a citizen, before I would agree or disagree with any
of them, I'd need to know more about them."

Fine Arts added to huge new college at UA
Arizona Daily Star 2/26/09
A plan to create the largest college at the UA
just got bigger. Officials announced on
Wednesday that the College of Fine Arts will
become part of a massive new college —
known as the Colleges of Letters, Arts and
Sciences — that already includes four other
colleges. When the reorganization is complete
in time for the new school year, the new unit
will have more than 1,100 faculty members
who will be responsible for teaching more
than half of the University of Arizona's 38,000
students. The UA announced plans in
December to bring four colleges — Science,
Humanities, University, and Social and
Behavioral Sciences — under one roof
as part of an effort to streamline operations
and save money.

Top Vatican official will visit UA's Steward Observatory
Arizona Daily Star 2/26/09
A high-ranking Vatican official will tour the UA's Steward
Observatory this week in a visit local scientists say
should help strengthen the institution's ties to a
centuries-old Catholic astronomy program. Cardinal
Giovanni Lajolo, who runs the daily operations of Vatican
City, plans to tour the University of Arizona's observatory
and the Vatican Observatory Research Group, an on-
campus unit run by priests that conducts astronomy
research for the Roman Catholic Church. Lajolo's visit
shows that the Vatican Observatory program at the UA
has the highest support from the church, said José
Funes, a Tucson-based Jesuit priest who is the
director of the Vatican Observatory.

Arizona sales-tax collections sagging
Arizona Daily Star 2/26/09
Collections of the state sales tax and use tax
plunged in January compared to the same
month the year before, the Arizona Department
of Revenue reported Wednesday. Total
collections were down 12.2 percent to $453
million. The biggest percentage drop occurred
in contracting, with a 19 percent decline to
$68.6 million during the month. The biggest
dollar decline occurred in the retail category,
where collections this January were $241.9
million, compared with $280.4 million in
January 2008. There was a bright spot,
though: Restaurant and bar collections
grew slightly.

Literacy coalition taps new director
Arizona Daily Star 2/26/09
Former University of Arizona Vice Provost Martha
Gilliland has been hired as executive director
of the Literacy for Life Coalition of Tucson.
The coalition is an initiative of The Community
Foundation for Southern Arizona, the Southern
Arizona Leadership Council and other local
leaders. The hiring was announced Wednesday
in a news conference at the Tucson Metropolitan
Chamber of Commerce. "With this kind of
support in the business community, we can
turn the curve upward," Gilliland said.

Kimble: A gift from out of the blue
Tucson Citizen 2/26/09
For 73 years - from the time she graduated from
the University of Arizona until the day she died -
Alma Pound harbored a love for her school.
Pound, who became a teacher, apparently didn't
come back to visit the campus often, if ever. It's
impossible to find anyone at UA who knew her
or even recognized her name. But Pound, who
graduated from UA in 1934, was deeply touched
by the school - especially by the library. So she
decided, without telling anyone, to leave the
library a gift when she died.

UA student charged with attempted murder
after giving birth in dorm
Tucson Citizen 2/26/09
A University of Arizona sophomore has been
charged with attempted first-degree murder and
child abuse involving a baby born in a UA dorm,
authorities said. UA Police Department officers
were dispatched at about 5:40 p.m. Monday to
a "medical assist" call at the Arizona-Sonora
residence hall, where sophomore Sarah
Elizabeth Tatum, 19, lives. They determined
Tatum had given birth to a boy. The Tucson Fire
Department responded and transported Tatum
and her infant to UMC for treatment and
evaluation, a release states. UAPD Commander
Kevin Haywood said the call for assistance
came from someone other than Tatum.

Stuart Flynn gets permanent post as Phoenix
medical school dean
Phoenix Business Journal 2/26/09 1:53pm MST
Dr. Stuart Flynn, interim dean of The University of
Arizona College of Medicine - in partnership with
Arizona State University since last May, gets to
keep his job. Flynn was appointed by Dr. William
M. Crist, vice president of health affairs for UA.
The appointment was effective Monday. Before
he took the interim dean position last May, Flynn
was associate dean for academics at the College
of Medicine - Phoenix since June 2006. Crist said
Flynn is the right person to continue leading the
campus and guiding its growth.

Students Warned About Mexican Violence
CBS News 2/26/09
Spring Break is approaching for college students,
but those pondering traveling to Mexico for the
vacation are being told to think twice. In years
past, reports CBS News correspondent Bill
Whitaker, the break has been filled with sounds
of revelry in Mexico's border towns. But now, a
very different sound is echoing through those
city streets: the sound of gunfire, with Mexico's
five major drug cartels at war. "I think half of my
friends aren't going," one student told Whitaker,
"because they say they're scared; they don't
want to get killed." "Students' health and safety
is a top priority for us," says the University of
Arizona's Karen Moses, "and so, we always are
encouraging them to take steps to insure their
personal safety, no matter where they are."

Editorial: The final straw
ASU Web Devil 2/25/09
On Jan. 31, when Gov. Jan Brewer signed the
package of bills that erased the state’s budget
deficit, we were focused on the $141 million
forced from the hands of Arizona’s universities.
Over the next few weeks, we saw the effects of
those cuts and as a university newspaper
should, we didn’t stop talking about what would
happen to our school. We saw employees going
on furlough, academic programs dissolving and
campuses on the brink of extinction, and with
the rest of our peers, we lamented the end of
higher education as it was in the state. What we
didn’t do at the time was go absolutely off-the-
wall mad in response to the cuts facing Arizona’s
K-12 schools. Sure, it was disconcerting, but it
made few waves in comparison to the potential
that tuition could go up, scholarships could
disappear and fewer classes could be offered.
A university is a very insulated place from time
to time.

Air and space institute to develop at Poly
ASU Web Devil 2/26/09
ASU is teaming up with political and aerospace
leaders to create an aerospace research and
development institute at the Polytechnic campus.
A 19-member advisory board, chaired by former
Honeywell Chairman Robert Johnson, has been
developing the Arizona Aerospace Institute,
aiming to strengthen Arizona’s aerospace
industry, create new jobs and attract aviation
companies. “It’s still an idea that is being
developed and, in some ways, kind of an obvious
idea when you think about how Arizona has been
a historically important state for aerospace,” said
Bill Harris, chief executive of Science Foundation
Arizona. In the next six months, the board hopes
to create a report on stages of the development,
the cost of it and how it will be funded.

Poly campus students won’t see services cut
ASU Web Devil 2/24/09
Polytechnic student services will not be cut during
the reorganization of the campus, officials said.
“What people need to understand in this re-
organization is that the cuts are at the administration
level,” said Gary McGrath, Polytechnic dean of
Student Affairs. “We won’t be losing things that
directly affect students.” Some students said they
were worried about the campus turning into a ghost
town next year. “I was thinking, and I’m worried it’s
going to be empty around here next year,” said
Michael Hildebrand, a professional flight sophomore.
McGrath and other Polytechnic leaders are assuring
students that this will not be the case. “There will still
be the same programs out here, at least for the next
few years, and that will include all the students,”
McGrath said. The campus isn’t expecting a
dramatically smaller student presence either,
he said

Board may suspend university tuition policy
ASU Web Devil 2/25/09
Tempe, AZ - Regent Robert Bulla said the board is
considering suspending the policy in order to open
up some financial options to the universities. ...

NAU: Budget cuts hurting growth
ASU Web Devil 2/25/09
NAU President John Haeger wanted to delay school-
wide furloughs until the next fiscal year, Nelson said,
in order to give employees time to prepare. ...

Furloughs planned for fiscal 2010
jackcentral.com 2/26/09
University administrators will take three furlough
days in fiscal year 2009, with the entire faculty
subject to furloughs in FY2010 according to
President John D. Haeger’s FY2009 budget.
Haeger’s plan included many cuts due to the
slashes in funding from the state legislature.
The plan includes three furlough days — unpaid
days off — for the president, vice president and
college deans. The specific days have yet to be
announced, but they will be scattered with only
one administrator being off on one day.
According to Haeger, these administrators
will be a “test group” to work out the kinks of
implementing furloughs and show employees
what the process will be like. “The amount of
money is not as significant as the symbolism,”
Haeger said.

Students find more than party town in Rocky
Point
UA Daily Wildcat 2/26/09
Students often travel to Rocky Point, Mexico for
their spring break vacation, long weekends, or
just as an excuse to party. Besides the
commonly heard excuses to travel there, some
UA students are also going to study marine
biology in estuaries along the Gulf of California.
The Center for the Study of Deserts and Oceans,
or CEDO, is a non-profit organization that
provides students with resources to study the
environment in Rocky Point. The UA sends
students to the CEDO field station in order to
get hands-on experience in these estuaries.
"One of those kids talked about changing the
tone of going down to Rocky Point from being
a party beach town," said research associate
for CEDO Alyssa Rosemartin. "If kids just went
down and talked to a local, or thought about the
changes they'd seen in the community over time,
I think that would be really cool." UA students
from all different majors are taking trips down
to Rocky Point to study the coast and participate
in service projects.

College merger claims Fine Arts
UA Daily Wildcat 2/26/09
As of Wednesday, the College of Fine Arts is
one of several programs contained within the
College of Letters, Arts, and Sciences. About
half of the undergraduate students at the
University of Arizona will now be a part of the
College of Letters, Arts, and Sciences. The
large college encompasses the colleges of
Science, Humanities, Social and Behavioral
Sciences and University College. Vice
president of external relations Steve McCarthy
said although this was originally part of the UA
Transformation process, it now is intertwined
with the recent budget cuts the university is
facing. He said that the merging of the
colleges is a way to streamline the efficiency
of the university while saving money.

House Passes Delayed Appropriations Bill That
Would Increase Some Student Aid
The Chronicle of Higher Education 2/26/09
Washington - The U.S. House of Representatives
passed a spending bill for the current fiscal year
on Wednesday, less than 24 hours before
President Obama was scheduled to release his
budget for the 2010 fiscal year. The House-passed
measure, which would finance most domestic pro-
grams—including student aid and research—
through September, now heads to the U.S. Senate.
The legislation (HR 1105) wraps up all of the
unfinished appropriations measures needed to
finance the federal government for the 2009 fiscal
year, which began on October 1. Lawmakers hope
to finish work on the bill before March 6, when a
"continuing resolution" that has been financing the
government at last year's levels will expire. Among
items of interest to higher education, the bill, as
now drafted, would provide $30.3-billion for the
National Institutes of Health, a $938-million
increase over its budget for 2008, and increase
the maximum Pell Grant by $119, to $5,350, in
the 2009-10 academic year. The National Science
Foundation would receive $6.49-billion, a nearly 6-
percent increase over 2008

Dissecting Obama's Message
Inside Higher Ed 2/26/09
WASHINGTON -- Is it feasible for every American
to have at least one year of postsecondary
education or training? What would have to
happen to make that possible? Would federal
financial aid and other policies need to change?
Would the distribution of students among different
kinds of colleges have to change? Those were
among the many questions that college officials
and higher education policy makers traded
Wednesday as they contemplated the
implications of President Obama's unexpected
call in his Congressional address Tuesday night
for a campaign to ensure that every American has
"at least one year or more of higher education or
career training." (A tangent: If you'd like, you can
read the president's speech in Farsi, Swahili or
other languages. Just had to note that.)

Cutbacks Threaten College Experience
Wall Street Journal Online 2/26/09
The college your kid just got into may be very
different from the one you visited last year.
Schools are trimming costs to shore up their
finances. And while some changes, like hiring
freezes, are temporary, others -- such as faculty
layoffs or scholarship cuts -- could profoundly
alter your child's education. ... Half of private
colleges and universities have frozen new
hiring, according to a survey conducted earlier
this winter by the National Association of
Independent Colleges and Universities.
Nearly the same number have slowed current
construction and renovation projects, while
22% have canceled planned construction and
renovation. Dozens more schools, public and
private, have initiated layoffs, program cuts
and other changes since the survey was
completed. Arizona State University, for
example, announced in late January and early
February a number of cost-cutting moves. The
school is capping enrollment after seven years
of explosive growth, now stymied by state bud-
get cuts. It is closing four dozen academic pro-
grams, including fire-service management and
music education. Along with those program
cuts come the elimination of more than 200
faculty associate positions.

Big U.S. Role in Lending to Students
The New York Times 2/25/09
The federal government has quietly increased
its support of the student loan market to such
a degree that the real question may be whether
there is a role left for private lenders at all. Arne
Duncan, the education secretary, ordered a
study of the department’s purchase of student
loans from private lenders. The Education
Department agreed in the waning days of the
Bush administration to expand its commitment
to buy student loans to keep the market working,
much as the government has agreed to buy up
all manner of loans, from mortgages to
commercial paper, to unfreeze various credit
markets. The newest initiative was announced
late last fall when there was great concern about
the ability of college students and their families
to get continued financing for education. The
most likely size of the program, detailed in the
Federal Register on Jan. 15, was $25 billion.